Surprise Encounter_3
“Gray…?”
“Yeah.”
“Really… really… Gray…?”
“It’s really me.”
“Gray.”
“Yeah.”
“Graygray.”
“Yeah.”
“Graygraygraygray.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s exactly the same. The memory is the same too. Even the mole under the right cheek…”
Why do I remember that?
“Yeah… Yeah, I’m Gray. Now you remember, right?”
“………….”
“………….”
“Gray. You really came… You came to me… to me…”
Elysia was muttering with a dazed expression, chewing on the words slowly.
But if it had ended there, it would have been fine.
“………… But.”
The situation seemed to take a while for her brain to process and reprocess.
“………… What I did just now…”
Her face had flushed an unnatural red, shifting from smile to tears in an instant.
It was as if the broken doll she had become was forcing its joints to move, replaying her own actions in fragments.
“………… How…”
“…………”
“………… I don’t want this… I… how could I do something like this…”
“Elysia.”
“………………………… me.”
“Elysia.”
“……………………………………… I’ll die.”
The first words were that.
I thought I had finally calmed her, but all my efforts had been in vain.
If Lucia or Tina had been there to help, the situation might have been different. The two of them, completely unaware of my desperation, were laughing and swinging on swings outside the window, eating snacks.
If I had even a moment’s peace, I could have asked them to soothe Elysia, who was crouching on the sofa with her soul half-escaping.
Even though I had shown up unannounced after ten years, the sight of Lucia locking us two alone in the house made me resent her all over again.
To be honest, it was awkward. No, it was terrifying.
The rope in Elysia’s hand was the real problem.
Ever since she had started tying knots without a word, things had gone from bad to worse.
“Why the rope all of a sudden?”
“……… I said too many things. I can’t take them all back.”
She wouldn’t meet my eyes. Head bowed low, her expression hidden. Every time I tried to catch her gaze, she would turn away with all her might.
I pressed my brows together and told her,
“There’s nothing to take back. I don’t remember any of it either.”
“……….”
“……… Right?”
“……… No, I did. I said too much. And the worst part… I didn’t recognize you. I can’t forgive myself for this. I’d rather die right now than feel this ashamed.”
“You couldn’t recognize me?”
“…… No, I never could. Not you, of all people.”
“This is all my fault. I’m sorry. Even if I was busy, I should have at least written letters… I never thought about that side of things.”
“Letters? No. How could I ask you for letters? I know everything about the path you’ve walked. Just following your footsteps has made me happy enough.”
Her words sounded as if she already knew everything, and for a moment I was bewildered. Then I realized the map and supporting knights she had drawn in her room over the past ten years were still there. I had no choice but to stay silent.
“So right here, right now, I’ll die cleanly.”
“You’re not dying cleanly at all.”
“… How… Even after praying for ten years… I ruined it myself.”
“Elysia, think carefully. We’ve only reunited after ten years, and the first words are ‘I’ll die’? That’s a bit…”
“… Haha… Yeah. Right?”
Elysia swept her flowing silver hair back and continued.
“It’s the life you saved. I can’t just say whatever I want… I really am beyond saving… I’ll die with a sense of responsibility.”
“And, to be precise, I did recognize you, right? I mean, didn’t I say earlier? My heart, my heart…”
I remembered her saying she would burst my heart and hurriedly tried to calm and persuade her.
Elysia’s eyes finally regained their light.
“…… Yeah. When you hugged me, my heart reacted! The instinct knew you better than my useless reason…!”
“It wasn’t a hug. It was because you were holding a bomb and your posture got like that.”
“I see… So that was it.”
“If you had known, it would have been fine.”
“Haha… My heart wasn’t broken… My heart alone knew you… But still, I tried to burst my own heart first…”
… She wasn’t listening to a word I said.
Well, at least her eyes were starting to regain some life, so that was something.
Elysia said with a noticeably brighter expression,
“It was my eyes that failed to recognize you.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t worry. This time, I’ll definitely…”
I watched her, wondering if it was some metaphorical expression, but when she picked up a spoon with half-lost eyes, I grabbed her arm in shock.
“Don’t do it! You came to me…! Even so…! These useless eyes are interfering with our reunion!”
“Stop it now…! You’ll get hurt!”
“It’s not just my eyes! The mouth that called you a dirty criminal when it saw you is even worse! I’ll sew it shut to match your taste!”
“Taste? What are you talking about…? No, I’m really fine. Snap out of it. It’s not a big deal, right?”
Only after I gently calmed her did Elysia’s movements finally stop.
“But…”
“……….”
“… If I don’t do this… you’ll be left alone again…”
“What?”
“I’ll be left behind… alone…”
Her voice suddenly cracked with moisture.
I didn’t need to guess what she would say next.
“…………”
“…………”
“………… Elysia. I…”
Just as I opened my mouth heavily, Elysia shot up and hurriedly wiped her eyes.
“Ah… It’s nothing.”
“…………”
“… I should go see my sister first. We’ll have nothing to talk about if it’s just the two of us.”
***
After finally calming Elysia and gathering my wits, I found myself sitting at the table.
I wondered when she had prepared all this, or if this was her usual setup. Hot steam rose from delicious dishes one after another.
After ten years of wandering, I had almost no chance to eat home-cooked meals, so I had developed the habit of devouring food the moment it appeared.
Especially since Lucia’s cooking had occasionally treated me to it even ten years ago, I could feel a faint sense of nostalgia.
But right now, I couldn’t focus on the food.
“……….”
I kept poking the elegantly arranged dishes with fork and spoon.
I knew it was extremely rude, but my actions were coming from some deep instinct in the unconscious.
Of course, the reason was mostly Elysia.
“Sister, is the older brother Gray that Gray oppa you were talking about?”
“Huh…? Uh…?”
Elysia had been avoiding my gaze since earlier.
The same reason was why I couldn’t focus on eating.
Tina tilted her head curiously and said,
“But unlike what Ria unnie said, he’s not super handsome like the prince in the fairy tale…”
“Tina?!”
“Ria unnie always said he was better looking than the Blue Skull Prince from the monthly romance novel ‘Monthly Heart-Pounding~Slaying the Skull Prince~’.”
“Then it’s only natural.”
“Hey, to Tina’s eyes, the Blue Skull Prince is cuter.”
“Tina… Your eyesight isn’t good, is it? Sister. Tina should probably go to the hospital.”
“Hmm… I think it’s you who should go to the hospital, not Tina. Maybe you need to take some medicine to calm down.”
Whether it was medicine or not, I was so embarrassed I wanted to die.
Usually I was shameless and boasted when girls called me handsome or threw out lame jokes, but hearing words like that made my heart race.
How could I even describe the feeling of being compared to my favorite novel prince in front of a child?
Wait, but if it’s a skull prince, isn’t it just a skull…?
I let out a long sigh and asked Lucia,
“Is Elysia usually like this?”
“She seems really excited.”
“Tina, you’re right, you’re right,” Tina agreed enthusiastically.
“Outside she’s quiet to the point of being cold, but inside she’s talkative and cute. But the way her energy is all over the place is new to me.”
“… Ugh!”
“Yeah, after ten years of only praying to Astasia, something finally happened. Of course she’d be excited. Ah, I should pray harder too.”
“Sister! You can’t just say things like that!”
Elysia protested with her face bright red.
Tina asked Lucia curiously,
“Mom, what kind of prayers do you usually do?”
“Please don’t cause any trouble for Tina today, every morning like that.”
“But that’s praying to Tina, not Astasia.”
“… I have to pray to her?”
Lucia looked at her daughter in disbelief.
“And Mom, I didn’t cause any trouble today.”
“According to Mom’s memory, you’ve been causing trouble for a long time. What are you talking about?”
“No? Tina didn’t cause any trouble today.”
Tina giggled, and in that moment, the real Elysia held up Tina’s hand.
“Yeah, I was quiet today. I even helped with the sightseeing… Ah, right… It was because I ate chocolate in the morning.”
“Ah! So that was it!”
Tina clapped her hands, remembering.
But Lucia’s remembered “trouble” didn’t seem to be that.
“And don’t mention it. You showed Gray all the treasures in your room without permission…”
Lucia froze a beat late and fell silent.
But it was already too late.
Elysia closed her mouth with a sunken look in her eyes.
Suddenly, a chill like something close to ice settled around her.
There was no magic or anything like that, but the emotions of gloom, paleness, fear, terror, and shame were so heavy that they could be felt without being spoken.
“………………………… Did… did you… enter my room?”
“…………”
“…………”
“…………”
“Speaking of which, earlier when I met you and Tina in the room… maybe…”
I made a mistake.
“No?”
I said, secretly sweating.
“I didn’t enter your room. Is there something?”
“…… Huh?”
“Your room.”
“… Ah, no? There’s nothing you’d be curious about. Just… just.”
Elysia finally filled her dead eyes with life and swept her chest.
“Whew… If I had been caught, I would have done something worthy of lifelong atonement to Astasia. Good thing.”
… I pretended not to hear her mumble.
“Those things,” she meant.
Sorry, Elysia. I’ve known about them for a long time.